The Silent Nature of Barry Lopez Essay -- Barry Lopez Essays

The Silent Nature of Barry Lopez In southern California, at a lower place Interstate 8 and west along the Mexican border, in the snapper of the desert skillful beyond an arroyo, rests an ancient intaglio, a horse mould out of perdition (Horse 401). If by chance you were to come across such a natural relic, perhaps you would first take a picture. perhaps you would initially approach to get a closer look. Perhaps you would immediately run your fingers over the coarse, intricate indentations of the nose, the ears, the hooves. However, when framer Barry Lopez first came upon the stone horse, he did nothing. He simply stood in his place. Still. Silent. And he did not just happen upon the horse he had been looking for it. Yet, at the sight of it, Lopez recalls creation startled, and that I held my breath (401). This is not the only instance in which temperament inspires awe in the writer. It occurs once more in Orchids on the Volcanoes as he watches sleeping Flamingos drift on a lagoon in Isla Rabida, an island of the Galapagos. It occurs again in Learning to See as he witnesses a graphic fleeting pattern of light falling at dusk on a windbreak of trees in Mitchell, Oregon (236). In every encounter, Lopez observes reputation with passionate reverence and spirituality that renders him speechless. But he does not write merely to relay his reaction. Barry Lopez wants us to replenish our dwindling respect for temper by sharing in the experience that nature affords us.Through his natural scientist essays, Lopez restrains that immediate urge we have to pet the horsey, take a Polaroid, and jaunt on. He persuades us to appreciate the urge. He strives to teach us near the inherently liberating spirit of nature, about how in just experiencing one consequence with nature ever... ...ea lion pup, rudely shunned by the other adults, waits with resolute prompt for a mother who clearly will never return from the sea. You go on your fingers here to the damp, soft r ims of orchids, blooming white on the flanks of dark volcanoes. (53)Lopez invites us to partake in the spiritual connection we share with nature and history, which awards us both independence in our world and compelling attachment to it. He bids us to notice the complexity of natures beauty (54), and-like the effect it continues to have on Barry Lopez time and time again-to let it render us speechless.Works CitedGrice, Gordon G. The color Widow. Encounters Essays for Exploration and Inquiry. Ed. Pat C. barge II and Robert DiYanni. Boston McGraw-Hill, 2000. 313-317.Lopez, Barry. The Stone Horse. Hoy II. 399-406.Lopez, Barry. About This Life. New York Vintage, 1998.